Broaching the fence convo with new neighbours

[Jericha]

(TLDR: you have new neighbours. Your shared fence with them is broken but you probably don't know as your plants hide it. It's very visible in their garden. They want to discuss replacing it. How best could they broach this subject with you and how would you respond?)

Looking for advice please. Recently moved, the back garden borders approx 5 houses due to weird layout. All boundaries are shared responsibility. Whilst the side bordering our next door neighbour is alright, the rest of the fences along the 4 other houses are in awful condition. These houses are on two different roads to ours due to the odd layout so we've not met the occupiers.

The panels are very weathered/slimy, broken in places and some have been pulled over by neighbour's plants which have crept over the top and through the gaps. There's ivy and in one spot a trunk of a shrub is pushing through, breaking the panel.

All four gardens back onto ours with plants/small trees at the ends of theirs so it's probably not noticeable to them and has likely happened over years with our sellers not mentioning it.

We are getting our garden done soon. We have asked while he's here can he quote (not do) to replace them all, like for like.

In an ideal world, we'd all pay half for the bits we share and the shrubs would be trimmed back to allow this and stop it happening again in future. Normally I'd knock on doors and introduce myself to broach it. Due to the lockdown, we thought the best way to approach is to pop a note through their doors, advise we will ask the gardening chap who also does fencing to quote, provide both our phone numbers and politely ask them to call if they want to discuss options, mention we have a dog and will need to do something. Also mention we'd have liked to introduce ourselves but understand this isn't suitable due to lockdown.

How would you word this note? If you received it, what would you appreciate and what would get your back up? We want to get along with our new neighbours and avoid annoying people as soon as we've rocked up but also avoid being taken for mugs either. Thank you!

Don’t do a note. You need to knock, introduce yourselves, let them know there is a problem then explain you were going to get quotes. It will come across far better than a note through the door.

Usually fences belong to one side or the other. We have a fence going down 2 sides of our house. Both are in a poor state so we replaced one side before Christmas, will do the other side later, it backs on to 2 different properties. We had to mostly just replace wooden posts with concrete ones. Our neighbour was getting huffy with our leaning fence so we had to sort it out and pay for it all ourselves. (He hasn’t even said thank you!).
It’s somewhere in the deeds of your house but it’s also assumed if you have the rough side of the fence with all the posts in, this is your fence. Even if it belongs to someone else you still can’t force someone to pay half, they may just not have the money? I don’t know what else you could do if they say they can’t afford it?
Fences are a pain!!

I'd say cracking on and replace if you want. I don't have a dog and my boundary is maintained by my shrubs so leave them/replace them or pull them out its no odds to me.

I don’t think you can assume it’s a shared problem.

Do not do a note. We made that mistake. Neighbour never replied. Got very angry about it even though fence is shared and really did need doing (rotting posts, leaning over, holes from shrubs behind growing through).
It took the guy we got in to quote telling her that her bit also needs doing to persuade her.
With 4 other houses you have a job on your hands. If you can afford it i’d just replace it. I imagine the hassle to you will be immense.

Hi all thanks for your replies. The boundaries around here are definitely all shared responsibility, checked with solicitor, deeds, sellers and next door neighbour also confirmed (I know that means boundary, not fences). It's only 20 years old and I don't think much has been done since they were built.

We've already had the conversation between us that regardless it needs to be done as it looks bloody awful. The only issue is without getting rid of some of their plants over the top and jutting onto the boundary line they'll just get ruined again. If they said yes to cutting back/being onboard but not contributing money we'd be relatively happy with that. It'll transform our garden.

Interesting a couple of you would prefer us to go round, we're happy to do this just didn't want to annoy any one due to current situation. This is really helpful as I think it would be a better way of going about it too.

The only downside of this house when we viewed it are these pesky manky fences, we said at the time that's going to be a ball ache

Thanks again!

I've always worked on the theory with fences that if you want them replaced then you should pay for them - regardless of who's responsibility they are. Obviously you need to talk to the neighbours about this so they're aware you're doing the work, can decide whether to cut back plants in advance, agree to allow fence blokes on their land etc etc. Its worth pointing out that if someone doesn't care about their garden and is happy for plants to overgrow a boundary, they'll probably do exactly the same thing even when there's a new fence in place, so you'll be hacking back their plants in future - which you're legally allowed to do, once they cross your boundary. And, yes, even at the moment, knocking on doors and then standing well back ready for a chat, is the way to go.

If they are party fences you need their permission anyway.

So I’d go round and introduce myself, but this is Covid times, so a note works better, explain you live at x address, this is your email address, the fences are damaged and need replacing and are party fences, and wonder if they are open to getting quotes to replace where you all pay your share, if not are they agreeable for you to habe the work done.

I think it's challenging. Can you wait? We are weeks away from large percentage of population being vaccinated and restrictions being lifted. Hopefully businesses will start reopening and people can go back to work.

You just moved in and you're going to cause anxiety just by knocking on their doors let alone asking for money in current economic situation.

Probably better to wait a few weeks if you can help it. Wait for lockdown to end and restrictions to ease. People will be more receptive. Just my opinion.

@MaudesMum

I've always worked on the theory with fences that if you want them replaced then you should pay for them - regardless of who's responsibility they are. Obviously you need to talk to the neighbours about this so they're aware you're doing the work, can decide whether to cut back plants in advance, agree to allow fence blokes on their land etc etc. Its worth pointing out that if someone doesn't care about their garden and is happy for plants to overgrow a boundary, they'll probably do exactly the same thing even when there's a new fence in place, so you'll be hacking back their plants in future - which you're legally allowed to do, once they cross your boundary. And, yes, even at the moment, knocking on doors and then standing well back ready for a chat, is the way to go.

This is my view too. If I was choosing to replace it I'd be looking for their permission but I wouldn't be asking for a contribution.

If you want them replacing, replace them. But they might not and its not something I could even be bothered to get into. Not worth the hassle.

I had something similar however my neighbours rent. I waited until tge landlord was round, introduced myself, explained the situation (shared fence) and asked what he wanted to do.

He refused to believe the fence was shared so I emailed the relevant paperwork, obtained a lot of quotes and dug my heels in until he contributed 50%

I was firm and polite all the time - conversations followed up by email to confirm and to ensure a trail of agreement

Took me a year to get the fence replaced, but there was no way in hell i was going to take full liability for something i only partly owned